This is a fantastic book that explores the depths that modern psychiatry has only recently rebounded from, and is in danger of relapsing into. McHugh is a fairly balanced thinker, and pretty well-informed. The article on sex reassignment surgery is an absolute gem that challenges psychiatry to look its dogma in the face. Occasionally, there is a tendency to be extremely conservative. The Terry Schiavo comparison to the Nazi's extermination is a bit hyperbolic, although his point that there was no fMRI, PET, or even conventional MRI to _scientifically_ enlighten the debate is a very good one. The slippery slope argument is valid, but I think focusing of the right to keep alive by tube-feeding is going to distract from more clear-cut issues. Finally, McHugh outlines where the future of psychiatry might lead and how we have to make crucial decisions at this point in history to keep the art in accordance with truly Hippocratic principles.
In short, every psychiatrist should read it, but I am sad to say there are many who won't because they lack the capacity to be self-critical.
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